Ourtreach One - Week Three

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be? You ARE a CHILD of GOD. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel unsure around you. We were born to make manifest the presents of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in EVERYONE! As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others” – Nelson Mandela 1994 inaugural speech.

Think about it.

This week has been the quietest of the three weeks but it has still been full with worship, showing God’s love in acts of service more than in speaking out. For example, the house of the pastor which was affected by the floods we helps tidy up, weeded and sweeped, mowed the lawn and generally made it look nice for when they got back from work. I’m sure everyone can agree the thought of gardening after a long day isn’t appealing so it was great to be able to help out in a small way. We also thoroughly cleaned the church, They had many people staying there when people were evacuated from their houses so walls were cleaned, windows washed, floor cleaned and the church was also made very presentable which was great! J What we did was greatly appreciated.

We had the chance to go into a school for a lunch program, after sitting down at a table with a group of 10^th graders and them all leaving my partner and I found a group who were willing to talk to us and we had a great time laughing at things they had done and sharing what we had done. It was great to start to make the relationships. Unfortunately we only stayed in Emerald five days and so relationships within the churches are strong but with the community and school it is less so as there weren’t many opportunities for us to go in and help out around the school. I am looking forward to spending longer in Emerald in the second outreach, we all believe that there is great potential for God to work in the community of Emerald so it’s all exciting! J

We were back in Townsville (home sweet home) on Wednesday evening and Thursday we got set on setting up for YouthFest – a day when teenagers from around Townsville get to come to seminars and workshops around a race track and get to experience different activities. The YWAMers had a garage which was decorated in bright colours and pictures and we were involved in a quality of life seminar, talking about how we as individuals, as Australia and a nation and how we can help Papa New  Guinea and build on that relationship. Part of the seminar was splitting into small groups and deciding what our strengths were and how we could improve our quality of life personally and what we could do for others, the things that the kids came up with were great – e.g. give blood, work for free, donate money, clothes, books, toys, help around school – all things that they could do to change and impact their lives and the people around them! J The evening was more of a time when the youth could just hang out, there was live music, a maze, rock climbing wall, silent disco, buggy riding with beer goggles and loads more different activities. Being able to mingle for 6 hours meant of course I went into the silent disco - AMAZING! and the rock climbing wasn’t too good as I freak out and only got half way up. However it was great to be able to just see the youth in a safe environment having fun and being able to ask questions about different topics at the different stalls.

It has come to the end of first outreach, a rollercoaster of emotions, from being shattered and not able to go on to pumped for get out there and change lives. The best bits for me was speaking to the youth group at emerald when God had his hand over it all and it all linked together, the feed back was awesome, Being able to make friends with particular people at schools and having the opportunity to speak life into their lives and encourage them, even listening to them and having a laugh was not only great for them but has also taught me a lot about how to work with young people. The experience has been amazing, my outreach team has become tight and the laughs have been many.

Thank you for all your support through prayers and encouragement on my first outreach phase! It really has been awesome!

God bless. 

Outrach 1 - Week 2

This week has been amazing, God has seriously been moving in Gladstone and everything that we have done has been very positive, whether gardening, making egg and cheese muffins for a brekky club to helping out at a school shine programme (a group of 10 girls who get together talk about identity, relationships, get help with their class work etc.)

Indepth look of the week:

• School programme – Ok so 6 of us are planning a school R.E programme for what we thought would be about 5 – 20 primary school kids. A few games, a talk and then a prayer to finish. Sweet very exciting! So we turn up at this school all pumped to talk to 20 kids and find out that we would be talking to the whole school, yes the whole school all 120 kids! The programme we planned was so much fun, 3 minute games all different to keep them entertained, I spoke about the Good Samaritan but changed it to a school setting which was fun, my team mate Courtney told a story of when her car broke down and how a stranger helped her out and how it meant a lot so maybe they could also help their teachers or parents out during the week.
• Melon bowling – 40 minutes of melons flying everywhere! We went back to a school that we had done breakfast club in and got to catch up with all the people we had spoken to the week before which was awesome. The melon bowling was a real hit, at first I thought it would just be the YWAM team and a few others from the Christian group there but there were loads of people standing around looking and the line up for a go was awesome! J

Travelling to Emerald…

A five hour journey north-east of Gladstone is a small town where we have now encamped in a room above the church. An hour after arriving myself and Hilary (team member) were thrown into writing testimony/sermons for the youth group in the evening, 20 minutes before we are meant to be talking I finally worked out what I was meant to be talking about. The cost of being a disciple, what it meant to me and how giving up everything to go to Australia has really changed my life around, how God has opened my eyes to new things and from stepping out in faith I am now able to carry the cross and follow Jesus. The best thing was that we had no idea what the night was going to be on but God linked everything together so it was all about sacrificing money, time, career, family etc. TOTALLY AWESOME! J

We also had a day helping someone tidy there garden from the floods that happened in January, the water came up a meter from the bottom of the house, take a walk outside and have a look at how high that is, then go back inside and have a look at all the stuff on the bottom level of your house.. devestation would be a nice way to put what the people of the floods have been through!

*** Personally God has also broken my heart for what breaks his – as awesome thing to say but when he does you’ll know about it. I had the privilege to look through his eyes at his people, I saw the faces of the broken, lost, the prostitutes, the abused, the starving, the dying, the homeless, the young and old and everything in between. The look of emptiness in their eyes was devastating, I was overwhelmed with grieve and a confusion and longing to help. From this however I now have a passion to help the people above, I don’t know how or when but I know why: I want to give them the opportunity to have life, a life walked with Jesus Christ and an eternity with the Creator of the world.  ***